NBA 2018-2019 Season thread

[Kirby101]

Gotta disagree. Health is always part of championships in any sport, and the "if" game is for suckers.

The 2015 Warriors beat a Cavs team missing both Kyrie and Kevin Love and no one puts an asterisk by their title.

Oh, yeah, that reminds me: hey Golden State, HOW DOES IT FEEL???

You don't actually disagree. That is what WPP is saying.

I also think it's nonsense. This is the same Curry, Thompson, Green team that beat the Cavs. So if they loose, they loose, no asterisk.

And I actually think an asterisk would be needed if Durant came back and saved them. KD going to the Warriors always felt like an unfair piling on of talent.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

So I rarely watch NBA but I saw a comical time line video and another one detailing the Philadelphia 76ers and plan by Sam Hinkie. As one video brings up Hinkie seemed to sense that the odds the 76ers could rebuild and compete standard wise by NBA luck (the draft lottery) was slim. That he needed more assets and draft picks to do it. So he started stock piling draft picks. As the 76ers went into the tank for 3 seasons.

Normally in the NFL a GM stock piling draft picks in a rebuild can go either way. If the drafting works (Jimmy Johnson) the team is rebuilt and competes quick. If not (Cleveland Browns and various GM's) it fails. But its weird to see a NBA GM decide to tank the entire team for seasons on end to get as many draft picks as possible lol.

[Scott Taylor]

You don't actually disagree. That is what WPP is saying.

I also think it's nonsense. This is the same Curry, Thompson, Green team that beat the Cavs. So if they loose, they loose, no asterisk.

And I actually think an asterisk would be needed if Durant came back and saved them. KD going to the Warriors always felt like an unfair piling on of talent.

Yah I agree (with everything except the Durant being unfair part). The Warriors have been outplayed on both the defensive and offensive ends, the whole series. The only reason they won game 2 is because Toronto couldn't shoot worth beans. There are always "what ifs" with every game, but bottom line is who wins and loses with what they put on the court.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I've heard Durant has been cleared to practice and might take the court tonight, however, I suspect it's too little, too late. Durant hasn't played in almost a month, to ask him to put the Warriors on his back to stave off elimination is a pipe dream at best. I think the Raptors put GS out of their misery and claim their first ever NBA crown.

[Hiromi]

Well he made an attempt, and promptly got injured again, that screams rushing back before he was ready

[Sacred Knight]

He tore his Achilles for real this time. At least, something popped, as the entire back of his leg jiggles with the force of something snapping.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Well he made an attempt, and promptly got injured again, that screams rushing back before he was ready

Agreed. That's what it looked like to me. In hindsight, it could be argued that Durant shouldn't have played. Meanwhile, Golden State held the executioner's ax at bay with a 106-105 win last night, forcing game six in Oakland on Thursday.

[Monyok Miclovan]

So I rarely watch NBA but I saw a comical time line video and another one detailing the Philadelphia 76ers and plan by Sam Hinkie. As one video brings up Hinkie seemed to sense that the odds the 76ers could rebuild and compete standard wise by NBA luck (the draft lottery) was slim. That he needed more assets and draft picks to do it. So he started stock piling draft picks. As the 76ers went into the tank for 3 seasons.

Normally in the NFL a GM stock piling draft picks in a rebuild can go either way. If the drafting works (Jimmy Johnson) the team is rebuilt and competes quick. If not (Cleveland Browns and various GM's) it fails. But its weird to see a NBA GM decide to tank the entire team for seasons on end to get as many draft picks as possible lol.

I got so used to seeing tanking that it felt kinda natural.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I got so used to seeing tanking that it felt kinda natural.

I have seen it done in some ways NFL wise for a reason. But nothing to what I saw in the videos I saw. All while telling folks "Trust the Process" as the tanking and rebuilding plan went for a couple seasons.

But I can see why a GM would decide , ok the draft lottery is fucked. The odds we can rebuild a team and get the chance at top tier stars will be rare. The more draft picks I have the better the odds I land a couple stars.

[Scott Taylor]

Agreed. That's what it looked like to me. In hindsight, it could be argued that Durant shouldn't have played. Meanwhile, Golden State held the executioner's ax at bay with a 106-105 win last night, forcing game six in Oakland on Thursday.

Calf injuries are tricky. When it originally happened, it seemed bad just because of the way it went down. He was just moving down the court and felt a pain twinge, like someone kicked him. That could have just been calf muscle. But it can really mess up your biomechanics if you come back and try to do the same sorts of activities with an injury, however minor. And that, in turn, can lead to a huge injury like a torn tendon.

Hoping for the best for him and a successful recovery. Tough one there, this could essentially be career ending. We'll see what the prognosis is and how he is able to come back after the inevitable surgeries.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Calf injuries are tricky. When it originally happened, it seemed bad just because of the way it went down. He was just moving down the court and felt a pain twinge, like someone kicked him. That could have just been calf muscle. But it can really mess up your biomechanics if you come back and try to do the same sorts of activities with an injury, however minor. And that, in turn, can lead to a huge injury like a torn tendon.

Hoping for the best for him and a successful recovery. Tough one there, this could essentially be career ending. We'll see what the prognosis is and how he is able to come back after the inevitable surgeries.

And Durant is a free agent. Last night might well have put the kibosh on any sort of mega contract he had in mind, whether it’s with Golden State, the Knicks or anyone else. If it was an achilles injury, KD could well be lost for most of 2019-20, on top of that, he’ll be 31 by the time the new season starts, further complicating any chance he had at inking a long term deal.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Opinion: Kevin Durant's injury should serve as cautionary tale for athletes everywhere

Since there’s so much we don’t know about the human body, athletic performance and the nature of injuries, let’s start with the most basic fact that there were two teams, two superstars and two very different paths to the NBA Finals.

In one corner there’s Kawhi Leonard, who didn’t accept the medical prognosis of his former team, ignored the noise when fans, media and some even within his own locker room suggested he should be playing and came back with a new team that allowed him to play a conservative 60-game regular season schedule to preserve his health for the playoffs.

In another corner there’s Kevin Durant, who averaged nearly 35 minutes over 78 games in the regular season and played more than 40 minutes in six consecutive playoff games before his calf injury and subsequent comeback attempt Monday night that has become the biggest flashpoint of the NBA Finals.

Though Golden State president of basketball operations Bob Myers tearfully came into a postgame news conference suggesting there was no one to blame — essentially, sometimes bad stuff happens in sports — that’s a cop out.

Durant didn’t break his arm or suffer a concussion or even tear up his knee. During a non-contact play where was simply trying to get by Serge Ibaka, he injured his Achilles, which is connected to the muscle that he injured previously and wasn’t healthy enough for him to play 72 hours earlier.

Golden State’s medical personnel surely believed Durant playing wouldn’t put him at risk of further injury, and Durant ultimately made the decision to play in Game 5 because he’s an elite competitor who trusted those who likely told him that dropping into the NBA Finals off one practice wouldn’t put his career in jeopardy.

In retrospect, Leonard had it right last season in San Antonio when he tried to come back from a quad injury in December but then shut it down for the year after nine games. That decision — seemingly on the advice of Leonard’s doctors, not the team’s medical personnel — led to unfair commentary from fans, the media and even former Spurs guard Tony Parker, who called his own quad injury “100 times worse.”

The idea that Leonard wasn’t being a team player by sitting out or that he wasn’t fighting through it is rooted in a twisted, fictional ethic that should have been obsolete about the same time we realized John Wayne didn’t like riding horses except in the movies. To think Leonard should have trusted his future to anyone or anything but his own sense of whether his body was ready to play basketball is one of the biggest scams perpetrated on sports.

Though we still don’t know who’s going to be crowned NBA champion this year, Monday will be a seminal moment for professional athletes or even college athletes inclined to skip bowl games: If you don’t look out for your best interests, who else will?

[Scott Taylor]

There's always a lot of blame to go around in the wake of these types of incidents. On the one hand, yes I think athletes are right to be cautious with an injury. But on the other hand I respect those who lay it on the line get out there in spite of physical setbacks. Klay Thompson always does this, as do Iguodala and Curry. Are they at fault somehow for Durant's injury by creating a team environment where you are expected to play hurt? Is it Myers because, as he said, blame him? Is it Durant or his doctors because of wishful thinking?

Bottom line its the individual athlete's decision. No one at the team, guaranteed, pressured Durant to play. But various news outlets called him out for, of all things, not sitting on the bench during the games he was out because he wasn't being a team player. And various sports pundits and fans have given him nothing but constant grief just for coming to the Warriors in the first place. Bullshit!

Get ready for the cavalcade of armchair NBA players offering their opinions as fact, though. People got to make a living.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Players coming back from injuries are a combination of blame from the Coaches to medical staff and finally to the players. One case in point that we can look at an injury that derailed a player was ... RGIII.

People have blamed Mike Shanahn for him rushing Griffin back into a game where his body clearly shouldn't have been. And as a coach he had the final decision. But there was more to it than that. The Redskins medical staff seemed to believe RGIII should be cleared to play and Griffin was worried about Kirk Cousins as he started to catch fire leading into the post season. So you had a medical staff saying "This man can play.." then you had your star QB proclaiming "I can play !"

End result is what we got.

[Surf]

Hell of a game 6 here.